I don’t know if I can actually pull this off, but it’s been a thought that I’d like to sound off in the open for others to see.

I follow a lot of stoicism philosophy and I like to follow parables for life lessons. The dichotomy of control, the obstacle is the way, you have two ears and one mouth, Amor Fati, Memento Mori, etc. Most try to put it in every day examples and while I was commuting to and from work, I was constantly fighting the urge not to rage at other selfish drivers. Of course, that comes with the dichotomy of control. I can only control my feelings and actions. But it also occurred to me that no matter what lifestyle you live, what background, character, personality, financial or disability you may or may not have, everyone gets stopped by red lights. There is no competition on who’s the fastest, selfish, richest, toughest, or luckiest person. If you’re rich and own a private jet, you’ll have a chauffeur drive you to where you’ll be. If you don’t own a car, bikes and pedestrians have to obey the intersections. Runners and wheelchairs, fast cars and slow cars, big ass trucks and mini models. Sometimes you get lucky and it’s a green light, but eventually everyone has to stop at a red light.

We’re all equal and it has me more grounded than ever before. We have sports competitions and favorite teams, and my needs versus your needs. Political views, be damned. I always think of the person cutting me off or squeezing and now I just let them. Wherever they are going and for how long, a red light will stop them too.

I wish I could be more profound or add so much more to make into a book, but there you go out in the open. Now people can poke holes in it if they like. Haha

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍
    2·
    3 days ago

    There is a whole community of rabid bicyclists (a subset, I’m not generalizing to all bicyclists) who fervently believe they should be able to ride through red lights if there’s no cross traffic because “it’s haaaard” when they have to stop.

    Also: cops and ambulances can literally rig the system in their favor, which means the impartiality of red lights is questionable. (And, the rigging is probably in most cases for a good cause, but still.)

    I like another commentator’s post: everybody poops. The people who don’t probably - almost uniformly - wish they could, because it they don’t it’s because of some medical condition they’d trade pooping for in an instant. It’s probably not even a silver lining, because they still have to deal with the waste and it’s almost certainly more of PITA than just pooping.

    Nice shower thought, though, Marcus A. I’m not strong-willed enough to practice stoicism - I can barely manage to be a reliably hedonist - but I do firmly believe and practice the dichotomy of control. It’s the only thing keeping me sane since the election.